But instead of lawsuits, this time around Honeywell is responding with its own stylish thermostat that takes direct aim at Nest. Honeywell’s new Lyric thermostat incorporates many of the features that made the Nest so popular (including a rotating bezel to scroll through settings and the ability to learn your heating/cooling habits), but also includes geofencing to further enhance the Home/Away settings found on the Nest.

With geofencing, the Lyric can automatically put your thermostat into an energy saver mode when you leave the house. But more importantly, it can sense when you are returning home based on the location of your smartphone and automatically turn on the heat or A/C to your preferred temperature setting. This is a step up from the Nest thermostat which will only adjust the temperature if 1) it’s on a preset schedule, 2) you manually change it with your smartphone app, or 3) you walk past the thermostat to “wake” the system.

Besides the geofencing, much of the other functionality is quite similar to the Nest including the ability to alert you when you need to change your filters, and adjust temperature settings in your home based on both indoor and outdoor humidity, temperature, and weather.

"Most people don't have a predictable pattern to how they live their lives; why not have a thermostat that adjusts based on your real-time schedule?" says Beth Wozniak, president of Honeywell Environmental and Combustion Controls. "With the Lyric thermostat's geofencing capability, my house returns to my preferred comfort setting when I'm within a few miles from home. Quite simply, the Lyric thermostat offers me the ability to keep my life in tune – delivering comfort when I'm home and savings when I'm gone."

Honeywell’s new Lyric thermostat is currently available for HVAC contractors, and will be available to retail customers in August for $279.